One of the state's smaller baseball programs will take on the much larger Virginia club today, when the Cavaliers face Radford at the U.Va. Baseball Stadium.
"We have got a big target on our back, everybody wants to beat the state school," Virginia coach Dennis Womack said. The in-state teams "would never admit it, but it's true. They save their best pitchers for us; they play the games wide open against us."
If this holds true, the Cavaliers will face the Highlanders' 'A' game this afternoon.
Virginia has been playing fairly consistent baseball for the past several games, halting a William & Mary effort and dominating Seton Hall all weekend, but yesterday's 9-7 loss to Liberty has proven that the Cavaliers are in no position to get comfortable.
Perhaps the seven early runs posted by Virginia, while managing to prevent the Flames from getting on the board, left the Cavaliers feeling too secure. Freshmen Matt Street and Mark Reynolds, and sophomore Kyle Werman each drove in two runs, and Mike Priest's single scored Street, but this was clearly not enough to seal the fate of the game. The Flames went on a tear starting in the bottom of the sixth, scoring nine unanswered runs and leaving Virginia without a chance to regain its composure.
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The Cavaliers should be wary of making the same mistake today. Radford, despite losing four of six games on the road, is .500 overall, has been producing strong, while not entirely consistent, efforts. Dan Street, senior third baseman and cornerstone of the Cavalier squad, acknowledges the potential for today to go either way. "They beat us last year, so anything can happen," Street said. " They're usually not that great of a team, but we can't take them too lightly."
While the Cavaliers are more than capable of locking down a win today, it is key that they focus on what they can control, which is their own level of play.
"I'm more worried about the way that we play," junior infielder and designated hitter Robert Word said. "The way we're playing now, we can beat anyone."
Yet to meet this potential, Virginia will need players like Street and Word to be hitting their stride this afternoon. This will set the tone for the rest of the Cavaliers to play at a high level.
With a busy start to the season and a full schedule ahead of them, it will be crucial for Virginia to keep focused and maintain a steady level of play. Womack acknowledged that this is essential to his club's success - this afternoon, and throughout the season.
"Baseball is interesting in terms of you play so much that you can't really give a lot of rah-rah speeches to get" the team up, Womack said. "They have to play on an even keel"
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